What Would You Say
to Your Younger Self?

If you had your time again, what would you tell your younger self? The negative voices that plague our minds and hearts can be relentless — especially as a young person trying to navigate life's challenges.

The Reach Foundation has been changing the mental health game for over 30 years, by giving young people the skills, language and the space to build resilience and express themselves authentically. The Annual Round For Reach Campaign, in partnership with Melbourne Football Club, returned to the MCG in 2023 to honour the legacy of the late Jim Stynes and raise vital funds to help Reach continue their important work.

The complex experiences all young people face during those early teenage years are universal. Without the right emotional toolkit to respond, these experiences only contribute to a young person's limiting beliefs.

In Australia, 99% of mental health funding goes towards crisis and intervention — but only 1% goes towards prevention. Without this support, the Reach Foundation is unable to get in front of young people from an early age and set them up for stronger mental health outcomes in the future.

While crisis and intervention measures are crucial in addressing immediate needs, prevention is the key to making a significant impact on the mental health crisis.

With a turnaround time of roughly three weeks, we produced all assets from concept development to final delivery — for online, TVC, radio, out-of-home and print media. Challenge accepted.

We demonstrated the universal experience of being a young person by expressing some of the most common limiting beliefs we endure during those early years of self-discovery. The voices of children were dubbed over our adult participants — suggesting these negative thoughts and feelings were coming from their inner child.

We then gave each participant an opportunity to speak to their younger self and deliver positive affirmations — in the same way that Reach Facilitators do for their young people, to build them up so they can thrive. This spoke to the fact that Reach must continue to get in front of young people early in life, before things foster into negative thought patterns or mental health issues.

Our key messages were delivered through the voices of Reach Facilitators and Melbourne Football Club, and driven home by a clear call to action — to get behind Reach and support their vital preventative work.